(757f) Production of Stable and up-Gradable Pyrolysis Liquid Transportation Fuel Intermediates from Lignin and Related Biomass

Fast pyrolysis is a liquefaction process that shows promise for converting lignocellulosic biomass to liquid fuel intermediates that can be eventually converted to liquid transportation fuels. However, raw pyrolysis oil can contain between 10 and 30 wt% water and hundreds of various oxygenated organic and reactive compounds that lead to significant challenges such as poor volatility, high viscosity, coking and corrosiveness. These attributes, in turn, limit its use as a fuel in the current transportation market. Work at ARS is aimed at combining biomass selection and pyrolysis pathway modifications to alter the composition and properties of pyrolysis oil so as to decrease some of the adverse fuel properties, increase its stability or make it more favorable for upgrading within the current refinery infrastructure. In this presentation, the quality of pyrolysis liquids produced by catalytic conversion of a 50% dry-solid extracted lignin is compared with that from a regular lignocellulosic biomass.